Tom Hunt

$3.6m ARR. $0 raised. I have no idea what I'm doing.

Jan 2014.I'm walking home from a depressing New Year's trip to Oslo with an ex. girlfriend.It's raining in East London.I made a decision:I would replace my management consulting salary (£42,000) by the end of the year.I had no idea from where, but that was the goal...I just about hit it and left the corporate world.And I haven't been back since.Fast forward a decade and I've:- Tried and failed with 17 businesses- Invested in 11- Learnt a LOTThe one that is finally working is called Fame:- We have a weird culture (in a good way)- We start and grow podcasts for B2B businesses- We are fully remote and have 75 full-time team membersI live for our awesome team at Fame, building businesses and great marketing.And I post about them here 🤗

Founder & CEO

We start and grow the world's most profitable B2B podcasts.

Clients include:

👉 IDEO
👉 Workday
👉 HighRadius
👉 People.ai
👉 Zendesk
👉 Bevy
👉 Circle
👉 Suzy
👉 Mazars
👉 LeanData
👉 CXL
👉 Ramp
👉 Alibaba
👉 Signify
👉 eToro

$4.5m ARR. $0 raised. I have no idea what I’m doing.

“We need to let them go.”

I’m in a 1-1 and a manager thinks someone in their team isn’t performing.

I'm in shock, to me they seemed enthusiastic and a culture fit.


We dug into the details:

- What weren’t they doing?
- Why weren’t they doing it?

The manager thought they either didn't understand or couldn't do the role.

Then I ask:

“How did onboarding go?”

“What do you mean by onboarding?” they reply.


And that's when we found the issue:

We skipped the onboarding process and replaced it with "a couple of calls".


If you’re recruiting right, you owe it to yourself to onboard right.

You can’t expect someone to join and start performing, you need to set them up to succeed.

Onboard right or do it twice.

Agree?

I had a terrible boss.

And I spent more time with them than my partner.
 

They never raised their voice.

They smiled (kind of).

But they also started:

- Passing my ideas off as their own
- Expecting email responses at 10pm
- “Checking in” multiple times per day
 
Again, they weren’t ever aggressive or rude, they just slowly eroded my confidence each day.

I thought this was normal e.g. you get a job, you get a manager like this.
 

And then…

I moved roles and got a new manager, they:

- Stepped in when needed
- Never emailed after hours
- Saved most comms to our weekly 1-1
 

A great manager won’t get you promoted.

They will change the trajectory of your career.

Agree?

My 7 favourite startup lies:


1. We’re scaling
-- No, you still don't know how/if you'll be profitable

2. We’re going viral
-- No, your CEO’s LinkedIn fundraise post got a few more likes than normal

3. TechCrunch picked us up
-- No, your $10k per month PR agency got you featured

4. We’re partnering with Google
-- No, you’re paying Google Cloud for servers

5. The inbound pipeline is strong
-- No, some competitors requested a demo to see what you’re building

6. We have FANG-level talent
-- No, one of your devs interned at Netflix 6 years ago

7. The team are fully incentivised
-- No, they have paper options based on an inflated fundraise


And my absolute favourite:

8. We’re worth $30m
-- No, a hyped up VC gave you this valuation to make themselves look good (so they can raise their next fund)


Thank god we don't have to lie to ourselves.

Here’s to the bootstrappers 🥂

(Exit the hype-train and subscribe to Cash Machines)

I probably shouldn’t share this…

I like to call it the “Pay Rise Formula”.


Most people go about asking for money in the completely wrong way:

1. Pay review arrives
2. “Can I have more money?”

It’s an easy "not yet" from the boss.


But if you follow these three steps, you boost your chances of a pay rise by at least 56%:

(Not a guarantee but it works)

1. 6 months before the pay review ask your boss: “what do I need to be doing in the next 6 months to get a pay-rise?”

2. Write those things down and make a plan to hit them. Work hard.

3. A few weeks before the pay review, show the list (with things ticked off) to your boss in a 1-1 and ask them to confirm if you are actually doing those things


If done right, there is no way a boss can push back on a raise with the "not yet" excuse.

Pro-activity pays.

Agree?

"OK let me get this straight..."

"Because it kind of sounds like you built yourself a job."


It's 11:37pm in 2017 and I'm sat with a good friend enjoying a spicy margarita in a seedy city bar.

He's shouting into my ear because they closed something called a "Series A":

- How their going to change the world
- An upcoming TechCrunch article
- All the people he needs to hire
- Their "enterprise motion"


But something isn't making sense to me:

1. He has to report to the board every month
2. Any cost greater than £25k must have board sign off
3. He can't take cash out whenever he wants
4. Board needs to sign off his salary
4. If he leaves in the next 4 years he only keeps a slice of his own company
5. If they don't sell it for a massive amount he may get nothing
6. To sell it, they need investor sign off


He replies:

"Yeah I see what you're saying, but the reality is the company is now valued at £20m, my stake is £6m, so I'm basically a multi-millionaire"

😳


As you can imagine, it didn't work out well.

Glad I stuck to building Cash Machines.

$4.5 million ARR, 0 raised.

$500 invested.

It’s been a wild ride.


We have built Fame as a service business with mostly intangible assets.

We did it without selling a single piece of equity to venture capital.

But even asset-light businesses get stuck.

You often need to buy speed to hire a star developer, fund a new marketing campaign, or pay a tax bill.

In those moments, I did not want to wait weeks for a bank.

Unless I had another option.

An option like iwoca.


They fund small businesses that move quickly and have already funded 100,000 businesses in the UK. 

They lent £3.3 billion to business owners who need to move fast and build resilience.

You can apply for business finance between £1,000 and £1M in about five minutes.

They typically give you a decision within 24 hours.

Apply here to check your options: https://lnkd.in/euSG4SCm

NOTE - applying does not impact your credit score.

#Ad

Brand partnership • $4.5m ARR. $0 raised. I have no idea what I’m doing.

It felt like the responsible thing to do... 


But then it turned out to be one of the worst business decisions ever.

Depreciating assets hurt the balance sheet, locking up capital that could be used for growth. 

For example... 

We are in a hiring sprint, bringing on 2 - 3 new team members in Feb. 

Old Tom would have dropped thousands upfront for laptops that would be worth significantly less by next year.

That isn’t scaling.

It’s a cash drain.

Instead, we are using Raylo.

It took 60 seconds to set up a subscription for the latest HP laptops, and they arrived the next day.

Here is why I recommend Raylo as an affordable option for small businesses:

- Protect Your Cash: We paid £0 upfront. Every pound saved on hardware goes straight into growth.

- Upgrade Freedom: With the MacBook M5 rumors floating around, I am not worried because we can upgrade the team to the latest models for free with Raylo's monthly rolling option.

- Zero Drama: If something goes wrong with a device during the subscription, Raylo's Lifetime Warranty covers technical faults and they sort it quickly.


Or in other words:

Stop buying "stuff" that rots on your balance sheet. 

Convert your tech to OpEx and keep your capital for growth.

Check out the subscription options for your team here: mdsh.io/raylo-business 

#Ad

Matteo Lombardi

Stratega

Stratega is a company that provides Digital Marketing Solutions for SMB's and Start-ups.
Within such a competitive environment in the Digital World, our Mission is to help our Clients Succeeding with a Strategic approach that involves a Deep Examination of all the relevant aspect involved Digital Marketing related to Your Company.
Our analytical approach starts with a detailed Company Assessment followed by an extensive Data Analysis phase that would design the right path towards your Business Goals.

Founder & Digital Strategist

PickEat

Responsible for defining the company's strategic sales and marketing 'vision' and for guiding the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

Chief Strategy Officer (CSO)

it's campus | startup accelerator

Start-up mentorship on Facebook Ads & Digital Strategy. My role is to support the Start-ups involved in the acceleration program by providing them recommendations on "how to implement a fast and scalable digital strategy" according to the KPIs set for the Demo Day.

Start-up Mentor

Italia's Growth Talent

The first Italian conference on the company's growth, 100% online.

More info at www.italiasgrowthtalent.it

Marketing Manager

Accenture

Italian Market - October 2018 - February 2019
UKI Market - February 2019- currently employed

Job Description:

•	Manage a portfolio of SMB clients with responsibility for growing revenue
•	Uplift revenue by providing consultative advice to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to help them grow their businesses across multiple channels - chat, email and phone
•	Demonstrate the value of our SMB advertising solutions 
•	Provide pre and post-sales support for all self-service products
•	Take responsibility for helping SMB clients drive results via their marketing campaigns through consultation, education, and support
•	Provide vital product insights and feedback from our customers to engineering.

Social Media Account Executive

Centre of English Studies (CES)

An Activity Leader works with students on guided tours, sports, afternoon/evening activities and parties. 

Job Description:

- This figure is responsible for looking after the students and ensuring they have a fun and interesting time.
- It’s a varied role: in the mornings the Activity Leaders are responsible for helping students get to class on time, testing and explaining new students about their new academic life; managing relationships with previously present students and helping to promote the social activities by making informational material and going around to classrooms making announcements. 
- Every afternoon and during the weekend the students have tours to various attractions around Dublin, guided by an Activity Leader.

Activity Leader

Move Your Inspiration srl

Development of my dissertation project: Strategic analysis of the company
Main points:
Resources and competences analysis
Competitive environment and competition analysis

Internship Student

Zamira Fashion Limited

Coordinator of the project for the development of a female collection (20 pieces).
The job was related to the team management and customer relationship. 
Also detailed translations of the fashion schedules from Italian to English

Team Coordinator

Founder @Stratega | CSO @Pickeat | B2B Tech Growth Marketer - sharing all my knowledge for free 🚀

Pickeat.it 👉 signed 4 partnerships with 10k+ companies in 2 months with NO BUDGET

Klondike.ai 👉 13 sales meetings worth 150.000€ booked in 2 months with NO BUDGET

vtenext.com 👉 37 MQL generated and positive ROI in 2 months with NO BUDGET

Redrays.io 👉 prototyped their app and saved 60% of the development costs

Duomodesign.it 👉 generated positive ROI with Facebook ads for 3 years straight

Would you like to achieve the same results for your business?
Email me: matteo@stratega.co

At Stratega our passion is your growth and we achieve it by partnering with you on digital marketing activities.
We do it as your business would be our business, following step by step your path towards your goal.

My academic career

☣︎2014 BSc in Management & Economics at the University of Florence

☣︎2014 PAL-INT Entrepreneurship course at the University of Florence

☣︎2017 MSc in Strategic Management at the University of Pisa

☣︎2018 Italia - USA foundation prize winner for Academic achievements (top 1000 in Italy)

☣︎2019 Scholarship & Master in Global Marketing & Communication at Centro Studi per l'impresa

& extra CV

☣︎ 2019 - Partner with The Start-up Training through Stratega for Digital Strategy

☣︎ 2020 - Moderator and Host for Growth Hacking Italia

☣︎ 2020 - Marketing Manager @ Italia's Growth Talent the biggest online marketing event in italy

☣︎ 2020 to date - Start-up Mentor for It's campus for Facebook ads & Digital Strategy

☣︎ 2020 Growth Hacking graduate at Growth Tribe

taplio

The Battle

Tom Hunt

Matteo Lombardi

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taplio

The Battle

Tom Hunt

Matteo Lombardi

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Tom Hunt's LinkedIn Performance

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